In what is arguably one of the biggest upsets in ONE Championship, Eduard Folayang captures ONE Championship’s lightweight belt on the third round TKO victory on Shinya Aoki’s third title defense since winning the belt in 2013.

Aoki dominated early in the bout, taking Folayang down in 20 seconds and quickly followed up with submission attempts. While Folayang showed a much improved submission defense in thwarting Aoki’s numerous submissions, including a deep rear naked choke, he was still unable to escape Aoki’s ground control and had to spent majority of the ground.

The second round saw Folayang employ his fluid footwork to avoid Aoki’s ground game. Folayang was taken down during a failed flying knee attempt, but quickly scrambled up and press on with his striking game for the remainder of the round, landing several solid kicks to the body as the round ends.

The end came quick on the Aoki on the third round when Folayang landed a flying knee on Aoki’s face as the latter dove for a double leg. Stunned, Aoki attempted to recover with another takedown, but Folayang quickly sprawled and landed 2 more knee strikes to Aoki’s head that sent Tobikan Judan covering up, allowing Folayang to land no less than 20 punches with no resistance before referee Yuji Shimada stopped the fight, awarding Folayang with a TKO victory on 0:41 of Round 3.

On the co-main event, Marat Gafurov made a successful second title defense in a rematch against Jadambaa Narantungalag, whom he took the belt from last year. Jadambaa landed a number of powerful overhand rights on the Russian earlier in the round, but the fight went to the ground when Jadambaa missed a kick, allowing Gafurov to close in and keep his opponent to the ground and attempted a rear naked choke. Gafurov maintained a top position during a scramble and managed to secure a rear naked choke the second time around to force a tapout from the former champion with 10 seconds left on the opening round.

RIZIN Fighting World Grand Prix 2017: 1st Round Results

The first day of RIZIN FF action is in the books after a action packed yet bizarre night/morning of fights. We now have the semi finalists of the bantamweight GP which will take place on the stacked New Years Eve card. The card displayed plenty of Japanese MMA talent, 3 of which are in the semi finals of the bantamweight GP. The undercard featured plenty of close fights including upsets over Reina Miura and Anthony Birchak. The full results are as follows:

Highest Ranked Strawweight Outside of the UFC challenged Angela Lee to a title fight in One Championship

28 Years Old, Zhang Weili(16-1) from China has challenged Strawweight champion Angela Lee for her strap in One Championship according to a source close to the Chinese fighter. Zhang who is the champion and fighting for Chinese based promotion Kunlun FC is currently negotiating on a one fight deal to face Angela. According to the source, they would like to determine who is the best women fighter in Asia in a one-off match and would have no problems to fight under the One Championship banner.

Zhang Weili(Left) at Kunlun FC 12

Since her pro debut loss in 2013, Zhang has racked up 16 wins in 3 years with a total of 15 finishes. She is the number #6 ranked women strawweight in the World according to Fightmatrix.com, just behind Rose Namajunas who will be facing UFC champion and number #1 ranked strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the title next month. Angela, on the other hand, is 9 rungs below Zhang at number 15.

Fightmatrix rankings as per 9/10/2017

While ONE was very eager to have a cross-promotion fight between Angela Lee and Joanna Jedrzejczyk to determine who has the better strawweight, they seem less eager to have a Kunlun FC champion on board for a one fight deal. The source states that ONE would need for Zhang to sign a 2-year exclusive contract first before discussing further for a fight with Angela.

If the source is accurate, ONE seems to be covering their bases this time and would not like for their champion to lose the belt to another promotion without securing Zhang on an exclusive contract. Kunlun, on the other hand, would also not want to lose their best fighter to another Asian promotion. Zhang would be a huge asset to ONE for their expansion in China but it would be tough for them to pry off the Chinese fighter as the source states that Zhang is being paid handsomely on Kunlun FC.

While things are looking bleak for a match between Angela Lee and Zhang Weili to happen in the ONE Championship cage, the fans will be keeping their fingers crossed and hope that they could witness a fight between two of the best women Strawweights in Asia.

Martin Nguyen to challenge Eduard Folayang’s title in Manila for the first champion vs champion fight in ONE Championship

After speculations on who Martin Nguyen’s next opponent when he signed a fight contract, ONE Championship have confirmed that Martin Nguyen is set to challenge Eduard Folayang’s lightweight title in Manila on ONE: LEGENDS OF THE WORLD on 10 November.

The fight is the latest in a series of cross-division fights announced after Shinya Aoki vs Ben Askren and Aung La NSang vs Alain Ngalani, but this will be the first time the reigning ONE Championship titleholders from two weight divisions will clash.

Despite being on the lighter side of a featherweight division, the new champion decided to challenge the title against a fighter a weight class above him, and opens the possibility of the first fighter in ONE Championship to challenge the title in 3 weight divisions.

“I’m not out only to make a statement, but to go down in history as the best to ever compete under the ONE Championship banner” – Martin Nguyen

ONE: LEGENDS OF THE WORLD will be held in Malls of Asia Arena in Manila on 10 November 2017